Gulf Coast Claims Facility audit underway

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange told attorneys in the oil spill litigation that an audit of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, the oil spill compensation operation run by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, should be complete by the end of March. Over the summer U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced he would audit the claims facility to review claims and assess whether it has been fair to similarly positioned claimants.

In December, Strange said, the justice department selected the firm BVO to handle the job, and the group promised to complete the task in three months. That means the assessment of the claims facility's performance should come in while the trial over liability in the the April 2010 explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent oil spill is underway.